Time elapsed in this book: 2 weeks
Length of their junior year: 2 years, 10 months, 3 weeks
Jessica’s love interest: Alexander Kane
Entertainment rating: 6/10
It’s not like the covers of these books ever make the characters look like teens, but this one is particularly bad. Here we have Robin and George. Robin looks like she’s in her early twenties. George looks like her dad. I know George is older than Robin, but he’s only supposed to be 18, not 50!
Thankfully, the book is better than the cover (which isn’t saying much). Robin’s been accepted early admission to Sarah Lawrence College. What exactly is “early admission”? Based on my own experience applying for colleges, I’d say it’s when you apply to the college early in your senior year and hear back earlier than usual. However, in Sweet Valley, “early admission” apparently means you apply to a college in your junior year and, if you get in, you skip your senior year of high school and go straight to college instead.
Robin doesn’t know if she wants to skip her senior year. The problem is, her aunt Fiona will pay for college only if Robin goes to Sarah Lawrence, her alma mater. Not sure why it has to be “early admission,” but that’s the plot device that allows this book to be about a junior at SVH. Robin discusses this with her bff Annie Whitman, who asks what George thinks. Robin admits she hasn’t told him yet.
Meanwhile, Jess has landed a new afterschool job: babysitting the five year old sister of a college student named Alex Kane, who’s composing music for his senior thesis. When Jess goes to their house, she nearly faints because Alex is, naturally, “one of the best-looking guys she had ever seen.” This sighting has been added to the running list of the hottest guys Jess has ever seen. It’s been a while! His sister, Allison, plays her recorder for Jess, who thinks Allison is sweet but is really interested in getting to know Alex better!
George picks Robin up for a date. She tells him she’s been thinking about college. He immediately says that obviously she’ll go to UCLA (oh hey, my own alma mater!) because it has a good computer science department (I guess that’s her interest now?) and she’ll be able to dive all year (she’s gone from overweight at the start of this series to now being an incredible cheerleader and an amazing diver), plus she won’t be very far from him (he’s at Sweet Valley College). Robin says that money is a factor and her rich aunt has other ideas about where she should go. George isn’t concerned and tells her she wants to stay in California so she’ll figure it out.
Jess buys a cheap recorder and instruction book. She figures that if Allison can play it, she’ll be a virtuoso in a week. Her confidence is, as usual, incredible. When she practices, the notes come out so shrill that Liz asks if the recorder is broken. Jess shrugs and gives it to her twin, who plays a perfect note because, of course, she’s Liz and is perfect at everything.
Liz runs into George and tells him it’s great that Robin was accepted into Sarah Lawrence. George has no idea what she’s talking about, and Liz realizes that he didn’t know. She feels bad about spilling the beans, but then she gets home and finds the recorder in Jess’s room and plays that for a bit, which makes her feel better. The Wakefield twins do not wallow in guilt for long! Liz doesn’t want Jess to know she’s playing it, though, since she doesn’t want to one-up Jess.
Robin asks her mom if Aunt Fiona will be upset if she doesn’t go to Sarah Lawrence. Mrs. Wilson can’t believe what she’s hearing! She tells Robin she’s going there and that’s that. Apparently Aunt Fiona is so happy about Robin going to Sarah Lawrence that she’s paying for the Wilsons’ kitchen to be remodeled! I guess if you’re already committed to spending tens of thousands of dollars, why not spend tens of thousands of dollars more, am I right?!
Robin runs out to George’s car when he arrives. He drives them to (where else?) Miller’s Point. He seems angry so Robin asks what’s wrong. George says he knows about Sarah Lawrence and she didn’t have the decency to tell him she wanted to break up! Robin bursts into tears and says she hadn’t said anything because she was trying to decide what to do. George says she should tell her aunt she doesn’t want to go. Robin wonders what she actually wants.
Robin assumes that Annie told George, so she chews out Annie at cheerleading practice for betraying her confidence. Robin tries to regain her focus during diving practice, since the regional championships are coming up the following weekend.
Jess takes Allison to the beach with her friends. Alex shows up, and even Lila is impressed. She hadn’t believed Alex was as hot as Jess described, but now she is sold. Lila says, “I didn’t know musicians had muscles like that.” Jess says she didn’t know either. #swoon
The next time Jess babysits Allison, she makes an excuse to interrupt Alex. Jess tries to prolong their conversation, but he clearly wants to get back to composing. Jess sighs and returns to Allison.
Aunt Fiona shows up at the Wilson’s house and is a total snob. She says stuff like, “I am absolutely dead after that flight, even though I came first class, as usual.” Robin mentions diving, but Aunt Fiona is unimpressed. She calls it a “schoolgirl hobby” and says that Robin will of course immerse herself in more intellectual pursuits once she arrives at Sarah Lawrence.
Jess hides Allison’s recorder so Alex will have to search for it. Unfortunately, he finds it quickly, so Jess scrambles to come up with another plan. If she felt more confident about playing the recorder, she thinks she’d play it for him, but she can’t tell if she’s made any progress on it because she keeps getting bored so she never practices for more than five or ten minutes. Lacking other options, Jess holds a hand to her forehead and pretends to faint. Alex helps her to the couch. Once Jess is “conscious” again, he says he knows that he’s been preoccupied with music, but she seems really nice. Jess smiles, pleased that she’s finally reeled him in. Alex says he’s leaving for Julliard at the end of the semester and that he needs to devote himself to music right now, but perhaps when he comes back in a year or two… Jess is APPALLED. She is not into the long-distance thing (she’s barely into the short-distance thing) and is not about to wait around for him. She tells him she’s feeling much better and that she needs to leave for a date with her boyfriend.
When Jess gets home, she walks in on Liz playing the recorder. Liz is embarrassed to have been caught, but Jess doesn’t care since she’s officially over Alex.
Aunt Fiona takes the Wilsons to dinner at Cote d’Or. Aunt Fiona orders for everyone and then proposes a toast to Robin, who decides this is the moment to speak up. Robin says she doesn’t know if she wants to go to college early or if she wants that college to be Sarah Lawrence. Aunt Fiona tells her that if she doesn’t go there, Robin will never see another penny. Robin says she doesn’t want her aunt’s money and rushes away.
Robin calls George. He picks her up and says that Aunt Fiona can’t interfere with their plans. Robin gets annoyed because she doesn’t want George speaking for her either! When Robin gets home, she gets a call from Liz, who says that she (not Annie) is the one who told George about Sarah Lawrence. Robin doesn’t care anymore.
The next day is the regional diving championship. It’s basically down to Robin and Tracy King. Robin has picked difficult dives, but she’s not executing them perfectly. In the stands, Liz sits next to George, who says that Robin’s upset because her family wants to send her to New York but Robin wants to stay in California. Liz asks why Robin applied for Sarah Lawrence if she didn’t want to leave. Suddenly George realizes that he’s been as bad as Aunt Fiona, projecting his own wishes on Robin! He leaps up and says he’s going to make things right.
During a break in the competition, Robin sees George leave and feels dejected. When it starts up again, she does a mediocre dive. But when she gets out of the water, she sees George return, with her mom, brothers, and aunt in tow! Robin’s confidence rushes back! She nails her next dives and wins the championship!
Dina, Robin’s diving coach, tells Robin that she could get an athletic scholarship for college. Robin realizes she has other avenues to get funding for college! She tells Aunt Fiona that she appreciates her offer to pay for Sarah Lawrence but that she wants to stay at Sweet Valley High for her senior year and then decide where to go for college, which may or may not be Sarah Lawrence. She tells George she’s not staying because he wants her to stay; she’s staying because she wants to. Aunt Fiona says she can see Robin is as stubborn as she is so she’ll help pay for college wherever Robin decides to go. Robin then asks Annie to forgive her for assuming she’d told George about it. They make up and all head back to the Wilson’s house for a celebratory picnic!
Up next: Is Julie Porter into Bruce Patman?!